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Bionic eye takes shape, after successful operation

ELEANOR HALL: To Melbourne now, where an Australian research team has successfully implanted a prototype of a bionic eye.

The patient, had who been blind for decades, says she can now see shapes and flashes of light. It's raises hopes that an electronic eye may be available within a decade. But for now, researchers have a lot more work to do before they can begin more trials.

Simon Lauder reports from Melbourne.

SIMON LAUDER: Dianne Ashworth has profound vision loss thanks to the degenerative disease, retinitis pigmentosa. She's recently experienced vision for the first time in 20 years.

DIANNE ASHWORTH: When it was switched on, I was, you know, waiting, waiting... I had these goggles on and I didn't know what to expect. I can remember when the first... sort of, bigger image came that I just went, "Wow!"

SIMON LAUDER: The bionic eye has 24 electrodes providing stimulus to the eye, in response to external signals. At the moment that involves carefully controlled electronic signals, but eventually the electrodes will respond to video images.

The prototype has been implanted behind Dianne Ashworth's retina: the first time in the world that a bionic eye has been placed in that position.

Ms Ashworth isn't available to be interviewed by The World Today, but the consortium behind the project conducted its own interview.

DIANNE ASHWORTH: What I'm involved in is the pre... I suppose, bionic eye. Uh... it's... I have an implant behind my eye which goes... uh, wires connected then into a device that's in the side of my head, where the wires come out. And it's there that the wires are stimulated to then stimulate the electrodes behind my eye.

So that's how it works, and this needs to be done, to be tested, before the... can proceed to the next stage of the bionic eye.

SIMON LAUDER: The eye is the work of Bionic Vision Australia, a consortium of research groups which has $42 million in Federal Government funding to work with.

The eye was implanted in May at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. The surgical team was led by Dr Penny Allen.

PENNY ALLEN: Because it's a prototype, it had a lead that passes out through the wall of the eye, and that then passes across the orbital margin - so the bony bridge beside the eye - and under the skin and muscle to a plug that is implanted in the skull.

SIMON LAUDER: And what's the purpose of the plug?

PENNY ALLEN: Well, the purpose of the plug is that the electrical stimulation that will be used to stimulate the device can be varied greatly if there is a direct plug that the lead can be... you know, plugged in to. If you have an implanted stimulator, then you are more limited in the type of stimulation that you can use.

SIMON LAUDER: How accurate vision do you hope to give people, eventually?

PENNY ALLEN: Well, these patients are all severely impaired, so they are not... they can't navigate independently, and what they want is to be able to navigate independently. And that's what we're aiming to give them.

SIMON LAUDER: Dr Allen says researchers will be relying on feedback from Dianne Ashworth to improve the prototype before more implants take place.

PENNY ALLEN: How do you make it brighter? How do you make it bigger? How do you move that... that stimulation around in her visual field? If you link up stimulation, what does that produce?

SIMON LAUDER: Will those flashes of light eventually look like the visions that we see in front of us, or will the user have to learn to read them, in a way, to interpret what an object is.

PENNY LANE: No, we think... we think that the patients will need to learn to use them. It's going to be sort of pixellated vision, for want of a better term, and you know, we think it's going to be black and white.

SIMON LAUDER: Australia is a world leader in the development of a bionic eye. A separate project at the Monash Vision Group in Melbourne is developing a eye which would work on the same principle, except it would be implanted directly into the brain.

The group's general manager, Dr Jeanette Pritchard, says her team will be very interested in the feedback from Dianne Ashworth.

JEANETTE PRITCHARD: We're aiming for our first patient tests in early 2014, so at the moment we're undergoing extensive testing to ensure that our device will be safe and will be able to be implanted safely, and that it will actually be functional as well.

So we expect, with all being well, that we might be ready for the clinic in around 2020.

SIMON LAUDER: Sounds like you would be interested in the feedback that this patient can provide as well?

JEANETTE PRITCHARD: Absolutely. You just can't get that kind of information without somebody describing to you what they're seeing, and it's invaluable.

BRANDON AH TONG: Having sight growing up, it is something that I miss dearly, and any breakthrough in research - whether that be through mechanical means or through the bionic eye or through stem cell research is a positive that I'm holding onto.

SIMON LAUDER: Bionic Vision Australia is hoping to have an improved version of its bionic eye ready to be tested within 18 months.